The embroidering process has been used to decorate fabrics since the time of the ancient Egyptians and Greeks. In its simplest form, embroidering consists of inserting a thread, which may be selected from a wide variety of colors, through the eye of a needle, inserting the needle through the fabric, drawing the needle all the way through the fabric, re-inserting the needle at a different location on the rear of the fabric, and drawing the needle and attached thread through the front surface of the fabric, to complete one cycle or "stitch." In this manner, colorful decorative patterns of any type may be embroidered on the surface of a piece of fabric, producing an attractive tapestry-like effect.
In addition to the embroidering process described above, another popular embroidering process called punch embroidery exists. Punch needle embroidery, sometimes called loop embroidery, is used to embroider thick or strong fabrics, and when it is desired to use heavier threads. In punch embroidery, a heavy needle having a hollow bore and an eye very close to the sharpened tip of the needle, is inserted through a first, or rear side of a fabric sufficiently far for a thread, previously inserted through the rear end of the bore and out through the eye, to be secured behind a second, or front side of the fabric. The needle is then withdrawn, leaving a loop of thread on the front side of the fabric. The needle is then moved to a new insertion location and re-inserted into the rear side of the fabric at that location.
Punch needle embroidery has been traced back to the 16th century, where it was discovered that punch embroidery work was done in French convents and in the Ukraine to make church vestments. The first punch needles were made from hollow bird wing bones, and later of rolled tin. These needles were threaded by sucking the thread through the needle bore, and inserting an end of the thread through the eye.
Recently, punch embroidering tools have been manufactured which use a hollow needle of the type used in hypodermic syringes for administering intravenous injections or drawing blood samples. Hypodermic needles used for this purpose are modified by having a small transversely disposed thread-hole drilled through the diagonally cut end of the needle, just rearward of the sharpened point of the needle.
Hypodermic needles modified as described above have proven quite satisfactory in punch embroidering applications. A problem has existed, however, in providing a handle or holder for modified hypodermic needles which could safely contain the needle when the tool is not in use. Also, it would be desirable to have an embroidering tool in which extension distance of the needle from the tool could be controlled, thereby controlling the length of thread loops produced using the tool.
An embroidering tool employing a modified hypodermic needle which is retractable within the handle of the tool, and lockable at an adjustable extension distance from the handle was disclosed in Walker, U.S. Pat. No. 4,886,003, Dec. 12, 1989. Embroidering Tool.
The present invention was conceived to provide an improved embroidering tool of simpler design.